I'll go first! 
Inception1.How did you choose your partner? What qualities made them an appealing partner?
Video320’s growth as an artist is evident in his time here at Void—it’s why I nominated some of his comics for Void Awards last year. He has a bouncy and clean style that complements mine, I think.
2. How much did your characters and story plans dictate this choice, if any?
From the start, we knew we wanted the comic to take place in Wu Foods, home of Video’s May Wu. I knew I wanted to use Jane’s new roommates, Charlie and Tess (Dimension’s awesome characters). I never really have longterm plans in mind for Jane—I just have her story change depending on who she fights. Connecting the battle cooking circuit with Jane’s forgotten spy past was something that came up later on in our ideas.
3.How much research was required to craft your conflict with your opponents? If you did any at all.
I read all of Ethanol and TLBots comics, of course! Obviously, unlike May and Jane, TL and Ethanol have history together. We didn’t get to feature that too much, but having them work at the same restaurant made perfect sense.
Communication4. How did you communicate your battle plans, brainstorming, progress with your partner?
All the important decisions were via Void’s PM system, and then email to collaborate on design work and pages. Not only did we have to get our versions of Ethanol and TL right, we had to design Sal and Pete, the enemy chefs (I designed one, and Video designed one—guess who designed which!)
5. Did you feel the communication was good or could be improved? If so, what worked/didn’t work?
Communication was great, very quick and we were frequently updating each other on ideas and progress.
6. What mediums or tools did you use to communicate effectively?
Just PMs and email, and it worked very well.
Workload7. Who performed which duties to your comics creation? Plotting, Scripting, Pencils, Inks, Colors, Lettering?
We basically split this comic in half, but we did collaborate on some things to make it pretty cohesive.
8. How did you determine the division of labor between you and your partner?
Basically I suggested I write the beginning and Video handle the latter part. And then we used Video’s image for the cover, so I made the recipe page at the end.
9. What strengths or weaknesses did you attempt to manifest/cover up in your shared duties?
Can’t really think of any, except I’m not the best at fight scenes, so I guess it was a good idea that Video handled that part of the comic. I think he choreographed it well.
10. Did you encounter some snags in your process that your partner helped you overcome?
Just being generally awesome and encouraging helped me get my half done on time!
Editorial11. Were there any disagreements that arose between the two creators? Script issues, art issues, final cut decisions?
Nope—from the start we had the same vision for the story.
12. How did you resolve any disputes that arose? Who made the final call?
We got along too well that no problems ever came up!
Product13. Are you satisfied with the fruits of your shared labors?
ABSOLUTELY! I am so proud of our comic.
14. If yes, why? If no, what can you account that to and how can this be improved in the future?
Speaking for myself: BACKGROUNDS have always been a huge struggle for me, but this was the first comic I can look back at and say, “I didn’t leave anything awkwardly blank!” I really paid attention to details and backgrounds in this comic. Also that weird THICK OUTLINES thing that people have mentioned in critiques, where my lines get crazy thick at inappropriate times—I did my best to curb that here and I think succeeded. As for working with Video: I liked how our two halves seemed like they went together, and I think we can make the pairing even more seamless next time. Maybe breaking the comic into even smaller chunks—like instead of each taking a half, alternating quarters? Close to how Red and Salt did it in their comic.
Tourney 15. Who did you want to fight in this tourney?
So many people! ROFLQU for one, but such was not to be. I’m excited to face anyone Jane’s met before, so fighters like Gossamer Swan and Johnny Patch, but most of them are shiny and new opponents for me. I really would be excited to face any of them!
16. Who did you fear to fight?
Oh god—Hiemie and Tinman. But it’s a good fear, the smart kind, the kind of fear that keeps one alive in the wilderness…
17. What was the funniest thing that happened between your partnership during the comics creation?
Nothing really too crazy happened—we seemed to come to the same conclusions a lot. When he designed his half of the Garnish Team, he made him EXACTLY like I envisioned him, and we never even discussed it. MIND READING.
18. What was the most rewarding part?
Just working alongside someone with a similar style and work ethic. It’s a nice change of pace (really only the second collaboration I’ve had on Void) and it’s also great practice for the pro comics industry, where no man is an island unto himself.
19. What was the most difficult part of your comics creation?
Trying to convey the opposing characters with the full measure of respect due! By that I mean making sure TLBot and Ethanol Jones got enough scenes, meaningful scenes, and conveyed their personalities well. Trying to make sure Ethanol was world-weary and snarky and TLBot was ADORABLE. He was also slightly less useless in this battle, which may have been out of character, but I thought it’d be a nice surprise!
20. If you could do it all again, would you and what would you do differently?
I don’t think we could have done any better. However my ideal setup would be we’d have a longer deadline outside of a tournament setting—get Salt and Red to script and draw WITH US and make a 100+ page epic chef battle! Also, I would’ve added kittens for TL to cuddle because we all love that…
Poll
99 Problems and a Cat
Croi Desai vs. HR99
@ 12:30 AM Apr 23rd